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Patent Rolls: entries for Yorkshire
(1275-1276)Calendars of the patent rolls of the reign of king Edward I are printed in the Calendars of State Papers: but these cover only a fraction of the material on the rolls. From 1881 to 1889 the reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office also include calendars of other material from the rolls - about five times as many entries as in the State Papers - predominantly mandates to the royal justices to hold sessions of oyer and terminer to resolve cases arising locally; but also other general business. The calendar for the 4th year of king Edward I [20 November 1275 to 19 November 1276], hitherto unindexed, is covered here.

GOUER. Cost: £6.00.

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Yorkshire Inquisitions
(1275-1295)Inquisitions post mortem are inquiries as to the real estate and heir of each person holding in capite or in chief, i. e. directly, from the Crown, or whose estates had been escheated or were in ward. The age and relationship of the heir are usually recorded. Inquisitions ad quod damnum enquired as to any activities (including maladministration by local officials) that had resulted in any material loss to the Crown. Proofs of age are inquiries into the precise date of birth of an heir, usually involving local inhabitants recalling those circumstances which fixed that date in their mind. Yorkshire inquisitions for this period were edited by William Brown for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and printed in 1898. This index covers all names mentioned, including jurors, tenants, &c.

GOUER. Cost: £4.00.

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Guisborough Cartulary
(1119-1300)The Augustinian (black canons) priory of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Guisborough (Gyseburne) near Middlesbrough in north Yorkshire, was founded about 1119 by Robert de Brus. The 1100 or so grants of land (mostly in Cleveland) made to the priory from then well into the 13th century were copied into a cartulary or chartulary which survives as Cottonian Manuscript Cleopatra d ii (British Library). This was edited by W. Brown and published by the Surtees Society from 1889. This first part contains the charters from folios 1 to 233, items I to DXCIII. The texts have been stripped of repetitious legal formulae, retaining the details of the grantors, the property, and the witnesses: so the individuals named are mainly local landowners and tenants, canons, servants and wellwishers of the monastery. The charters before 1250 are often undated.

GOUER. Cost: £4.00.

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Yorkshire Inquisitions
(1294-1303)Inquisitions post mortem are inquiries as to the real estate and heir of each person holding in capite or in chief, i. e. directly, from the Crown, or whose estates had been escheated or were in ward. The age and relationship of the heir are usually recorded. Inquisitions ad quod damnum enquired as to any activities (including maladministration by local officials) that had resulted in any material loss to the Crown. Proofs of age are inquiries into the precise date of birth of an heir, usually involving local inhabitants recalling those circumstances which fixed that date in their mind. Yorkshire inquisitions for this period were edited by William Brown for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and printed in 1902. This index covers all names mentioned, including jurors, tenants, &c. The volume also includes two stray inquests, from 1245 and 1282.

GOUER. Cost: £4.00.

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Clergy, the religious and the faithful in Britain and Ireland
(1342-1362)These are abstracts of the entries relating to Great Britain and Ireland from the Regesta of popes Clement VI and Innocent VI, from the period when the papal court was resident at Avignon. Many of these entries relate to clerical appointments and disputes, but there are also indults to devout laymen and women for portable altars, remission of sins, &c. This source is particularly valuable for Ireland, for which many of the key government records of this period are lost. Clement VI was consecrated and crowned 19 May 1342 (the day from which his pontificate is dated); Innocent VI was crowned 18 December 1352 and died 12 September 1362. The extracts were made by W. H. Bliss and C. Johnson from Regesta cxxxvii to ccxliv, and published in 1897. The registers are almost complete for these two pontificates. At his accession, Clement VI promised to grant benefices to all poor clerks who should come to Avignon and claim them within two months of his coronation. As many as 100,000 are said to have come, and the register for the first year of his pontificate runs to twelve volumes.

GOUER. Cost: £4.00.

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Court rolls of manors held by Durham priory
(1296-1384)The cathedral priory of Benedictines (black monks) of St Cuthbert at Durham possessed many manors in the county. These were administered by halmotes, or manor courts, held in three sessions (tourns or turns) each year (here marked I., II. and III.), before the terrar (obedientiary), steward, bursar, and/or the prior himself. The court rolls recording proceedings in these courts survive from 1296, 1300, 1309, and from 1333, but with years missing, until becoming fairly continuous from 1365 onwards. Extracts from the rolls from 1296 to 1384 were edited by John Booth and published by the Surtees Society in 1886. The manors under this jurisdiction were Aycliffe, Bellasis, (Newton) Bewley, Billingham, Burdun, Chilton, Coupon, Dalton, Edmondbyers, Ferry (Hill, or Ferrycliffe), Fulwell, Harton, Hebburn, Hedworth, Hesledon, Heworth, Jarrow, Kirk Merrington, East Merrington, West Merrington and Mid Merrington, Monkton, Moorsley, Newton Ketton, Nunstanton, North and South Pittington, East and West Rainton, Ravensflat, Shields, Southwick, Spen, Usworth, Wallsend, Wardley, Wearmouth, Westoe, Willington and Wolviston. The main contents of the records are demises of land held by the bond tenants, neifs, cotmen and others, and of the demesne lands; and bye-laws and pains (penalties) for breach of these; and other minor delinquencies.
Normally, when a farm, cottage or piece of land was let to a new tenant, the name of the last tenant is also given, as well as the amount of the rent, and the amount of the gersum (fine on entry). These court rolls contain some of the only surviving evidence for the inhabitants of these townships in this period: but this publication was of extracts, and was not comprehensive. It should also be noted that the third tourn each year (III.) usually took place in January to March, and so by modern dating in the following year. Thus, the third tourn of 1296 was held on 4 March 1297.

GOUER. Cost: £4.00.

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Lancashire Feet of Fines
(1377-1509)Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in Lancashire. These abstracts were prepared by William Farrer for the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society and published in 1905, under the title 'Final Concords of the County of Lancaster, from the Original Chirographs, or Feet of Fines, preserved amongst the Palatinate of Lancaster Records in the Public Record Office'. They cover the period from John duke of Lancaster to the end of the reign of king Henry VII. In addition, there are abstracts of fines paid for various Lancashire writs from 1377 to 1509, and a fine of 1195 that had been discovered during the preparation of the volume.

GOUER. Cost: £4.00.

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Masters and Apprentices
(1738)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's father's name and address, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. 1 January to 7 October 1738

GOUER. Cost: £8.00.

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Masters and Apprentices
(1744)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's father's name and address, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship.

GOUER. Cost: £8.00.

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Sailors and marines awarded the Baltic Medal
(1854-1857)During the Crimean War, a British and French fleet entered the Baltic, and captured Bomarsund harbour and one of the Aland Islands (now part of Finland). Bomarsund is the sound between the islands and the Swedish island of Vardo; and at the fine harbour on Bomarsund, dominating the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, and indirectly that of the Gulf of Finland, the Russians had constructed a northern naval base, and this was destroyed in the attack. The British fleet taking part in the Baltic expedition comprised Her Majesty's ships Aeolus, Ajax, Alban, Algiers, Amphion, Archer, Arrogant, Basilisk, Belleisle, Blenheim, Boscawen, Bulldog, Caesar, Calcutta, Centaur, Colossus, Conflict, Cornwallis, Cossack, Cressy, Cruizer, Cuckoo, Cumberland, Dauntless, Desperate, Dragon, Driver, Duke of Wellington, Edinburgh, Esk, Euryalus, Exmouth, Falcon, Firefly, Geyser, Gladiator, Gorgon, Hannibal, Harrier, Hastings, Hawke, Hecla, Hogue, Imperieuse, James Watt, Leopard, Lightning, Locust, Magicienne, Majestic, Merlin, Miranda, Monarch, Neptune, Nile, Odin, Orion, Otter, Pembroke, Penelope, Pigmy, Porcupine, Prince Regent, Princess Royal, Pylades, Resistance, Retribution, Rhadamanthus, Rosamond, Royal George, Royal William, Russell, St George, St Jean D'Acre, St Vincent, Sphinx, Stromboli, Tartar, Termagant, Tribune, Tyne, Valorous, Volage, Volcano, Vulture, Wrangler and Zephyr. This is the medal roll of the naval and marine claimants who qualified for the Baltic Medal for service in 1854 to 1855. The medals were dispatched in batches from early 1857, the first batch being numbered B A 1, the next B A 2, &c.; then follows the destination (a place or, more usually, a ship) and the date of dispatch. Most of the medals had been sent by the end of 1857.